What's Up? (Fabulous Secret Powers)
by AutumnAgain
Summary: In which the people of Etheria encounter a mysterious video message. Set post-Season 3. Essentially crack treated semi-seriously.


_A/N: This fic is set shortly after the Season 3 finale, and contains spoilers. I own nothing; see end notes for details._

It hadn't been long enough. Everything was just as it had been, before. The buildings had returned, and the doors, and the people. Everything was the same, and nothing was.

Shadow Weaver was back in the guest room, no one certain what to do with her and Glimmer in no state to make an official call. The last Adora had seen her, Glimmer had headed to her room in a puff of glitter. "I need to think," she said, before she vanished. Adora was in her own room, quiet, thinking about Catra and Mara and Angella and choices. She'd done everything she could, she knew what had happened wasn't her fault, but it still hurt.

A knock on the door.

Before she could bring herself to get up and answer it, Bow stuck his head in.

"Adora? I need to show you something."

She swung herself upright, from where she had been lying on the bed. "Come in, Bow. What is it?"

He sat next to her, tracker pad in hand and expression serious. "There's a file on here that I didn't download."

"What?" She leaned over to get a closer look.

"It's a video file, I think, and it- it just appeared! I don't know where it came from!"

"When did it show up?" Whatever happened, this was more interesting than lying in bed overthinking things.

"As far as I can tell, sometime between an hour ago and when we left for the Fright Zone. According to the logs, if my math is right… it appeared while the portal was open."

"You think this could be from the other side of the portal? From… from the place I came from?"

"I don't know for sure! It could be some Horde thing, or maybe Entrapta? Maybe the portal just corrupted one of my files and it's nothing. But, whatever it is, you have the right to see it first."

"You haven't watched it?"

"I scanned it for malware, but that's it." His fingers hovered over the tracker pad. "Do you want to watch?"

Adora nodded. "Play it."

Hordak stared that the screen. He hadn't known what to expect, when he found the file on his lab computers. A message from Entrapta, perhaps, or some automatic surveillance footage of the portal's activation. Maybe even an intercepted transmission from Horde Prime.

He had not anticipated this: a blond man in a pink vest smiling out from the recording, his surroundings unrecognizably blurred.

"Hi there!" said the man. "I'm Adam, Prince of Eternia. This is my kitty Mr. Cringer-pants, the most cutest kitty in the universe."

Hordak continued to stare. The "kitty" came up to Adam's waist at the shoulder, and much more closely resembled a tiger than a pet cat.

Adam kept talking. "Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me on the day I held aloft my magic sword, and sang-"

Adora looked at Bow. Bow looked at Adora. On the tracker pad, Adam continued to warble something about "trying to get up a great big hill of hope".

"You know," said Bow, "The two of you kind of look alike."

Adora couldn't bring herself to respond.

"Oh!" Entrapta cheered, bouncing on her hair. The other prisoners on the transport to Beast Island turned to stare at her. "It's happy now!"

The prisoner closest to her had a video shoved in her face. A blonde man danced enthusiastically in front of a rainbow background. There were sparkles everywhere.

The prisoner did her best to edge away.

"Did he splice together footage for this?" Adora asked. "Why is he outside now?"

Bow shrugged.

"Who's Duncan?" she asked a few moments later.

"Probably that guy."

"I- wait, is that my sword? Rewind that!"

Bow obliged, pausing the frame on a glowing sword. Adora drew hers to compare it.

"It's hard to tell, from this footage, but I think the hilts are different."

"Yeah," Adora agreed. "Besides, why would my sword be in a video like this?"

Hordak blinked. This, this couldn't possibly…

"Imp! Are you seeing this?"

Imp frowned at the screen. At Hordak. Nodded.

How…?

How had Skeletor, of all people, gotten involved in this?

"Aw, it's muffled." Entrapta frowned at the video, which now showed a cook stirring a pot of soup. "Oh! It's back!"

The video ended. Adora's eyes were locked on the now-blank screen. "Bow," she said slowly. "What did we just watch?"

Bow dragged his gaze upwards, where it fixed itself firmly on the middle distance. "I have no idea."

_A/N: I do not own She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, nor do I own any of the characters from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Both shows are available on Netflix. The video described is, of course, "Fabulous Secret Powers", by SLACKCiRCUS, which can be found on Youtube. Song lyrics are from "What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes (copyright Interscope Records 1992)._


End file.
